Greetings From Texas

I’m in Texas for a cou­ple of weeks–this past week and next. I got here last Sunday, and have spent time work­ing with some won­der­ful peo­ple in Dallas and Fort Worth.

On this trip, my job sites are not Top Secret or even high-security. Not that I mind those loca­tions, mind you; I feel hon­ored to spend time at those types of loca­tions, and look for­ward to more vis­its. Still, it is a nice change of pace to be able to walk in or out of build­ings at will, with­out incon­ve­nienc­ing some­one who must act as escort just so I might get a cup of cof­fee or have a smoke.

I sin­cere­ly love my jobs.

Being a pro­fes­sion­al train­er in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Quark, Acrobat, Creative Suite, and oth­er appli­ca­tions feeds my burn­ing pas­sion for teach­ing, for talk­ing to oth­er cre­ative pros, and for the tools that I can only describe as the coolest in the world. Every time I walk into a new clien­t’s train­ing room I feel a thrill; every sin­gle class is dif­fer­ent, every stu­dent a new cre­ative peer whose skills I have the joy and hon­or of help­ing to hone. When I return to a pre­vi­ous­ly ser­viced client I get an even big­ger rush; I know the peo­ple, I know their work. Each time I go back, the train­ing is more effec­tive because the new stu­dents ben­e­fit from how focussed I am on their spe­cif­ic work­flow needs as a result of my pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences with them.

Abrupt as this is, I must end the post. I’m wiped out. I give every­thing I’ve got teach­ing a class, and it exhausts me phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly. [Shrug] I have an old-fashioned work eth­ic of give it your all. At the end of the day, I have giv­en it my all, leav­ing me ready for bed after my 7 hour day. And, with as much joy as teach­ing gives me, I would­n’t have it any oth­er way. :-D